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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Lou and Friends

Pet/People Portrait in Acrylic

About a month ago I was contacted by a very sweet lady who thought her portrait request might be a bit unusual. She wanted a portrait done of her husband, Lou, and their five cats. That didn't seem so unusual, but, then as her voice choked up, she told me that all of them were deceased and she wanted a happy memory of them all together in heaven. Well, I have to say that choked me up a bit, too. Having lost loved ones and beloved pets I hold in my heart that they are all happily in heaven visiting with God every day. It's how I deal with the pain of being separated from them, but I have to say I've never formed a picture in my mind of how that would look. This sweet lady had an idea of how it looked to her. She was trusting me to take her idea and make it a reality.

I agreed to meet with her and look over her reference photos and discuss her ideas a little further. I explained to her that I primarily painted pets and animals, not people, but she felt I could accomplish what she had in mind. If her husband looked a little different she was good with that as she felt he'd look better in heaven anyway. I wanted her to know that I'm a stickler for detail and capturing an accurate likeness so would do my absolute best to make all of them easily recognizable.

Now, I have to say I was excited to try this portrait as it was a little different from what I normally do, but in the past I have turned down commissions of people portraits because I'm not fond of doing them. Something about this lady and her idea intrigued me though and I thought it would be a good challenge. I was right about one thing. It was a good challenge, but not in a bad way.

This painting was a challenge because it required me to use the creative talents I've been gifted with to visualize something that I could not see. Normally, I try to paint from good reference photos and not make up what I can't see, though sometimes it can't be helped. The idea she had for the painting required the cats to be in poses different from the photos she had. The only two cats that I used exact photos for were the two Siamese at the bottom of the painting. We had no pose references for the Siamese and yellow Persian at his knees or the Siamese in Lou's arms. For all of those I had to rely on my knowledge of cat behavior and anatomy and some reference photos I took of a friends cat. The rest I filled in with descriptions from my client and a little heavenly help from the Creator of them all.

I have to say, the painting was actually a pleasure to paint. I chose to do it in acrylics as I felt if we needed to make any adjustments to poses or expressions it would be easy to do in this medium. It turned out that I did have to adjust a few things so the process went smoothly. The heavenly background was done using an airbrush to get a soft, ethereal effect and I think that worked out quite well. My client was delighted with the way everything turned out and that always makes me feel good to know I've created something very meaningful to them.

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Catherine lives in eastern Washington with her husband, Brian and her dog, Balin. She is an avid outdoorswoman, nature lover and artist. Her favorite subjects are animals of all kinds, domestic and wild, but especially birds and dogs. She enjoys painting in all water media especially acrylic, watercolor and casein. When she's not painting you can find her in the garden, riding ATVs, or enjoying the outdoors somewhere with sketchbook and camera at hand, stalking the subject of her next painting.